Chapter 631 Emerald

……

In this way, even after being isolated from the high pressure, low temperature, and seawater immersion environment in which they have been for hundreds of years, there will be no serious damage to the battleship.

While the 'Hercules' deep-sea salvage device was salvaging the other ten warships, the curious Wang Zheng also followed the ladder and went down from the deck to the cabin where the wreck was stored.

Without bothering the busy cyborgs, he walked over to a battleship and took a look.

The hull glows with black light, and the grain of wood can also be seen. Maybe it's because it's buried in the sand, or maybe it's not sunk for too long. In short, the damage to the hull of the ship maggot is not serious.

Moreover, to Wang Zheng's surprise, the 'Hercules' deep-sea salvage device is worthy of being a high-tech salvage equipment rewarded by the Shennong system. The hull was cleaned quite clean, and even some of the microorganisms inside the cracks in the hull were cleaned out. It's no wonder that Qian Hai and they only need to clean up these wrecks after they come out of the water, and they will directly spray art restoration agents.

Let Wang Qian move a ladder from the side, and Wang Zheng stepped on the deck.

On this three-masted battleship, which is more than 30 meters long and has a displacement of about 800 tons, the remaining artillery, ammunition, and hammers are messily displayed when it sank.

After a brief glance, Wang Zheng walked along the deck towards the captain's room behind.

"Knock...!"

The slightly dull footsteps made Wang Zheng feel the solid force that rebounded back on the deck. This was not surprising to him, as countless previous examples have shown that anything that has been reinforced with a work of art restoration agent will regain its original toughness and hardness, if not better.

He paused and briefly looked at the captain's quarters at the back of the battleship. Two thick teak doors, one still stubbornly in its original place, but the completely rusted hinges made it lose any possibility of moving. As for the other one, Wang Zheng guessed that it might have been lost for unknown reasons when the storm came. It is also possible that some sea creatures who took a fancy to this place and planned to sit in the nest violently dismantled and threw it away.

Three hundred years have passed, and there are all kinds of possibilities, and Wang Zheng is too lazy to waste his brain cells to guess.

After a brief look, he strode in. The light in front of him suddenly dimmed, and after getting used to it, Wang Zheng saw the situation clearly.

Disorderly!

This was Wang Zheng's first feeling.

Dirty!

It was his second feeling.

Although the Hercules deep-sea salvage machine cleaned up large chunks of garbage and excrement left by marine life, the remaining fragments were not cleaned in more detail due to time constraints. Moreover, the interior of the captain's cabin is also messily maintained in the situation when it sank.

But fortunately, although it is dirty here, it is not impossible to put your feet down. Moreover, there are no human bones or anything that makes people feel uncomfortable looking at them.

After frowning, Wang Zheng began to look carefully.

Generally speaking, the captain's cabin is the most spacious of the entire ship, and it is also the place where high-value artworks are most likely to exist. Especially the proud, self-defeating, and powerful old British aristocrats.

Of course, the same is true here, in the entire nearly 60 square meters, about 3 meters high, there are many oil paintings on the walls. It's a pity that after being soaked for 300 years, it has long lost its original color and has become worthless.

"Boss, look!"

Looking in the direction of Wang Gan's finger, Wang Zheng found a bronze statue in the right corner of the captain's room. The bronze statue is not very tall, about 1.2 meters, and the image is a naked fair woman with an upper body, somewhat similar to Venus, but here with arms.

Wang Zheng looked at him closely, then nodded. He didn't reach out to touch the seawater standing on it, and some calcifications that hadn't been cleaned up. But he understands that a bronze statue from 300 years ago, if not a famous artist, is a valuable work of art.

It can be said that this female bronze statue is the second most valuable artwork that Wang Zheng saw when he came on the boat.

As for the first, of course, this relatively well-preserved shipwreck.

"You all look and see if there are any other valuable works of art here!"

Wang Zheng's words fell, and Wang Gan, Dian Wei, Yuan Ba and Chen Qing, who followed him in, began to look around.

His own gaze swept over the bronze statue to the cabinet next to it.

The cabinet is not very high, it is 80 centimeters wide and about 1.5 meters high. Several cabinet doors are fairly well preserved. Wang Zheng tried, and two of them were completely stuck by unknown calcifications, and the rest also lost their ability to open due to the rust of the hinges. Fortunately, a few drawers can be opened.

"Poof......!"

As soon as he opened the first drawer, an unknown species of sea fish suddenly jumped out of it. After calming down his somewhat frightened thoughts, Wang Zheng frowned and glanced at the sea fish that was still writhing in the ground, showing tenacious vitality, and didn't pay attention to it. Turning his gaze back to the open drawer, he lost interest after a brief glance.

Except for some small things that are not of high value and cannot be seen, high-value things such as documents and maps have long since rotted.

After pushing the drawer back, Wang Zheng went to open the second one next to him.

Because of the preparation, after being sure that he would not be surprised by the fish, shrimp and crab that suddenly jumped out, Wang Zheng wasted some strength and opened the second one.

Wang Zheng, who originally thought that there would be no gain, was shocked and took out a small black box from the drawer.

The box is the size of an adult's palm, and in the middle it can be vaguely seen that it is a person's embossed lion head, and under the head there is a line of English that Wang Zheng does not recognize.

Outward, there are some delicate reliefs of entwined flowers, which are extremely exquisite.

Using his thumb to twist the surface of the box, Wang Zheng quickly guessed that the box was made of silver. Although the silver box was oxidized to black, the metal buckle on it was not rusted, and Wang Zheng opened it easily.

In a small pool of turbid water, Wang Zheng took out something that was wide at the bottom and narrow at the top. After a few brief glances, Wang Zheng removed the things that were already a little rotten and looked like oilcloths.

Soon, a pipe about 15 centimeters long appeared in front of Wang Zheng.

Although it has been immersed in the sea water for 300 years, the pipe still blooms gorgeously because of the layer of tarpaulin on the outside. The surface of the pipe, made entirely of gold, is inlaid with more than 20 precious red sapphires, especially on the head of the pipe, where a fine emerald the size of a fingernail shines.

In addition to these precious stones, the surface of the pipe is also embossed with angels, children, roses and other relief patterns, which add to the beauty of this pipe.

Although it has not been determined and evaluated in detail, with Wang Zheng's experience over the years, this pipe will definitely be able to fetch a price of more than 30 million pounds if it is won by Sotheby's or Christie's.

It is rare to find such a valuable object, and Wang Zheng naturally showed a happy smile on his face. Just as he was playing with his pipe, he was attracted by the voice of Dian Wei next to him.

"Boss, look!"

"What?"

Wang Zheng, who was puzzled, turned around, and was quickly attracted by the contents of the wooden box that Dian Wei opened at his feet, which was about the same as a trolley box.

In the box, which was still full of the fishy smell and stains of seawater, the dense green instantly occupied Wang Zheng's eyes. Take two steps forward, crouch down, and take out a piece of it and put it in front of your eyes.

Even though the light in the captain's room was very dim, the green gem in Wang Zheng's hand still revealed a lustrous green. It is like the plants and trees that have just sprouted in spring, revealing a vigorous vitality.

"It's an emerald!?"

Wang Zheng quickly judged the size of the peanut in his hand, and there were some green gems with stone skins, which were the famous emeralds.

Emerald is known as the king of emeralds, along with ruby sapphires and diamonds, and is recognized by the Western gemstone community as one of the world's four most precious gemstones. It symbolizes kindness, faith, kindness, eternity, luck, and happiness, and is loved by people.

For emeralds in good condition, one gram is worth tens of thousands of dollars. And Wang Zheng found that there was almost no defective emerald rough in this box. Both the color and clarity are extremely high-end.

Of course, this is not something difficult to understand. Three hundred years ago, Colombian emeralds were just discovered, and there are a large number of high-quality emeralds available for mining. The slightest blemish may be thrown away. Just like the jadeite in Myanmar, in the Qing Dynasty, bean seeds and transparent glass seeds were leftovers that no one wanted. But now that resources are gradually depleted, they have also become a good thing that everyone is competing for.

These thoughts only flashed in Wang Zheng's mind and passed. What really made his heart beat faster was the value of this box, hundreds of thousands of rough emeralds.

Even a rough estimate would not be less than $500 million.

"Looks like there's something good in the captain's room. Wang Zheng couldn't help but admire.

But God seemed to be deliberately against him, and after these emerald roughs, they almost searched the captain's room and found few high-value items.

Even so, with the previous harvest as a foundation, Wang Zheng was not disappointed. After exiting the captain's quarters, enter the cabin below. It's more cluttered than the captain's room. Moreover, there are stains that have not been treated. Fortunately, before the battleship was salvaged out of the water, the 'Hercules' deep-sea salvage machine had already buried the bones inside into a large pit dug at the bottom of the sea. Otherwise, you won't be able to see it here.

After looking around, looking around at the fighting compartment, the crew's rest compartment, the utility warehouse, the prison on the ground floor, etc., Wang Zheng did not find anything of value except for forty or fifty bronze cannons from the 17th century.